Dollhouses in Texas

While the U.S. housing industry suffers through its worst slump in 15
years, Dallas-based Fox & Jacobs has sold some 600 cottage homes in
Dallas, Fort Worth and Houston since July. Reason: the houses are going
for as little as $34,500. Fox & Jacobs, which uses assembly-line
methods, has become a master builder of low-priced homes.

The company cuts costs at every step, beginning with the concrete slabs
on which each home sits. Crews stretching out for four blocks lay
foundations for a whole neighborhood. Construction hands then nail
frames and panels assembled in company factories to the slabs, and add
prebuilt...